The Bronx Defenders (BxD)—an innovative, progressive, holistic indigent defense office in the South Bronx—seeks passionate second-year (2L) law students committed to public defense to join our Criminal Defense, Family Defense, Immigration Defense, Civil Action, and Impact Litigation Practices for our 2025 Legal Summer Internship Program.
The Bronx Defenders is a public defender non-profit that is radically transforming how low-income people in the Bronx are represented in the legal system, and, in doing so, is transforming the system itself. BxD seeks thoughtful, creative, energetic individuals with a strong commitment to social justice to join our dynamic and diverse staff. Our staff of over 400 includes interdisciplinary teams made up of criminal, civil, immigration, and family defense attorneys, as well as social workers, benefits specialists, legal advocates, parent advocates, investigators, and team administrators, who collaborate to provide holistic advocacy to address the causes and consequences of legal system involvement. Through this integrated team-based structure, we have developed a groundbreaking, nationally-recognized model of representation called holistic defense that achieves better outcomes for the people we defend.
Each year, we defend more than 20,000 low-income Bronx residents in criminal, civil, family, and immigration cases, and reach thousands more through our community intake, youth mentoring, and outreach programs. Through impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community organizing, we push for systemic change at the local, state, and national levels. We take what we learn from the people we represent and communities we work with and launch innovative initiatives designed to bring about real and lasting change.
The Bronx Defenders 2025 Legal Summer Internship
Over a period of 10 weeks, The Bronx Defenders Legal Summer Internship provides a unique opportunity for interns to receive extensive training in various legal disciplines and play an integral role in holistic defense. Legal interns receive a comprehensive orientation with an introduction to all of our interdisciplinary practice areas and special projects; technical skill training and simulations; and anti-oppression workshops. Our legal interns gain invaluable client interactions, participate in a summer-long intensive legal skills training series, and may have the opportunity to advocate for the people we represent in legal settings on the record at their supervisors’ discretion.
Criminal Defense Practice
The Criminal Defense Practice (CDP) at The Bronx Defenders consists of over 150 attorneys, investigators, social workers, legal advocates, practice associates, and administrators who provide comprehensive criminal defense representation to people in the Bronx facing police and criminal legal system involvement. Through a client-centered approach, our CDP legal teams strive to gain a deeper understanding of the circumstances and priorities of the people we represent. Armed with that understanding, they fight for desired outcomes by strategically raising personalized, persuasive arguments in mitigation, negotiations, and litigation. Candidates for this practice must demonstrate an interest in defending individuals charged with criminal offenses.
Civil Action Practice
Our Civil Action Practice (CAP) provides comprehensive legal services to the people we represent and their families by fully integrating civil representation with our criminal, immigration, and family defense practices. Our goal is to minimize the severe and often unforeseen fallout from legal system involvement and facilitate the seamless reintegration of the people we represent into their communities.
Our Civil Action Practice attorneys and legal advocates represent people in every forum in New York City – administrative, state, and federal – to address these problems, and provide comprehensive representation to assist people in overcoming civil legal barriers to housing, eviction, employment, and public benefits, as well as addressing instances of police misconduct, criminal record errors, and civil forfeiture. Candidates for this practice must demonstrate an interest in defending individuals civil rights in areas concerning, but not limited to, housing, benefits, and employment matters.
Family Defense Practice
The Bronx Defenders’ Family Defense Practice (FDP) provides legal representation and social work support to parents charged with child abuse and neglect who are at risk of losing custody of their children. Our Family Defense Practice is at the forefront of a movement to provide holistic representation to parents in the Bronx while creating long-term solutions for the reunification and stability of families. Family Defense Practice Attorneys primarily litigate abuse and neglect cases, but occasionally appear in concurrent matters including custody, visitation, and termination of parental rights. Candidates for this practice must demonstrate an interest in defending parents charged with abuse and/or neglect with the goal of reunifying families.
Immigration Practice
Twenty years ago, The Bronx Defenders developed the model of integrated criminal defense and immigration representation. Our immigration work closely with non-citizens throughout the pendency of their cases in both Criminal and Family Court to avoid and mitigate negative immigration consequences that may arise from those cases. Our Immigration staff represent people in deportation proceedings in both detained and non-detained settings, provide affirmative immigration services, and pursue community-based litigation and advocacy aimed at transforming unforgiving anti-immigrant federal laws and policy. The Immigration Practice consists of approximately 60 staff members including attorneys, social workers, legal advocates, and administrators.
Since 2013, our immigration attorneys have also worked as assigned counsel at the Varick Street Immigration Court under the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), the first-ever universal representation project in immigration court. Candidates for this practice must demonstrate an interest in defending non-citizens charged with criminal offenses in immigration proceedings.
Impact Litigation Practice
The Impact Litigation Practice (ILP) is a collaborative civil rights division at The Bronx Defenders that uses civil litigation strategies to advance and strengthen the rights of the people we represent. ILP works closely with direct services staff to identify widespread injustices affecting the people we represent and leverage civil legal tools—from demand letters to class action lawsuits—to redress and end those injustices. ILP’s work covers varied civil rights issues, including but not limited to racial and economic inequity, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, and fundamental freedoms. ILP’s approach to civil rights litigation—from the cases we choose to work on to the change we advance—is guided by engagement with the communities we work with, lessons learned in our direct services representation, and a commitment to supporting movements for BIPOC rights Candidates for this practice must . demonstrate an interest in social justice and systemic change, and possess strong research, writing, and data collection skills.
Legal interns assist attorneys in every aspect of representation, including:
Legal interns also have the opportunity to observe or work as co-counsel on cases in a variety of judicial venues, including Criminal Court, Civil Court, Family Court, Immigration Court and Administrative Hearings. Each legal intern works alongside attorneys in the Immigration, Civil Action, Criminal Defense, Family Defense, and Impact Litigation Practices.
To be eligible, applicants must be:
Applicants must demonstrate:
Our 2025 Legal Summer Internship runs from May 27, 2025 to August 1, 2025.
To apply, please click APPLY TO THIS JOB ONLINE and upload your resume and a cover letter in one document when prompted. If you would prefer to send in a video or audio statement in lieu of a cover letter, you may upload your resume as a document and separately upload a video or audio statement instead of a cover letter. Your cover letter or video/audio statement should share why you want to do this work at our office, some key lived and/or professional experiences that have prepared you for this position, and any additional information you would like for us to consider. Your cover letter may be up to one page if written or up to 3 minutes if an audio/video statement. This information allows us to understand your distinct perspective, experience, and potential beyond the work history summarized on your resume. Please remember that you may submit a written cover letter or an audio/video, but not both, and applications without a cover letter—in either written or video/audio form will not be considered.
You will be contacted via email if you are selected for an interview. Interviews for applications submitted outside of career fairs and OCIs will be conducted virtually on a rolling basis through October 1st, 2024. Please contact Thanisha Pariage, Recruiting and Hiring Director, via email at thanishap@bronxdefenders.org with any questions regarding the internship.
The Bronx Defenders is an equal opportunity employer and is cultivating an anti-oppressive workplace that embraces staff with a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We acknowledge the ways in which systemic oppression and injustice can undermine access to professional opportunities and are committed to conducting hiring and promotion processes that are equitable and accessible to those commonly excluded from the workforce. We do not discriminate against and in fact specifically encourage applicants from marginalized communities to apply, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, disabled, neurodivergent, and those directly impacted by criminal, civil, family and immigration legal systems. We value lived as well as professional experience and particularly welcome applications from the Bronx community that we work with.
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